Born in Stamford, Connecticut, Lloyd attended the prestigious Fessenden School in Massachusetts and later Staples High School in Connecticut, graduating from the latter in 1957. Since embarking on a career in acting, he has appeared in over a hundred film and television projects as well as over two hundred stage productions, and has become a highly recognized figure in show business.

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Lloyd first rose to fame as Reverend Jim Ignatowski on the ABC (and later NBC) television comedy Taxi. Lloyd won two Emmy Awards for his role as the lovable, burnt-out Ignatowski, one in 1982 and another in 1983. Coincidentally (as revealed in the episode "Jim Joins the Network"), Lloyd's character was a huge fan of Star Trek and resented NBC's decision to cancel the show. However, one of his qualms about the series was the male Romulan commander (in TOS: "Balance of Terror"), whom he believed "did things no Romulan would ever do."

On film, Lloyd is probably best recognized for his portrayal of the eccentric inventor, Dr. Emmett L. "Doc" Brown, in the popular Back to the Futuremovie trilogy (1985-1990) ['BTTF']. This role not only earned him a Saturn Award nomination from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, but also granted him worldwide recognition and status as a cinematic icon. The BTTF film series co-starred Michael J Fox, Ivy Bethune, Jeff O'Haco, and Sachi Parker. He continued portraying Doc Brown in Back to the Future: The Ride and the live action segments of Back to the Future: The Animated Series. Several other actors involved:

Thomas F. Wilson as Biff Tannen in The film trilogy, the animated series and The Ride.

Neil Ross as the Biff Tannen Museum narrator in Back to the Future, Part II.

Lloyd reprised the role in 2010 for Telltale Games Back to the Future: The Game. The game includes voice work from Roger Jackson, who voices several characters including the father of Emmett Brown.

Outside of the BTTF franchise, Lloyd also played Emmett Brown in The Earth Day Special, which included Kelsey Grammer in the role of Dr. Fraiser Crane and Robin Williams as Everyman.

Another role for which he is well-remembered – and for which he received a second Saturn Award nomination – is that of the sinister Judge Doom in 1988's Who Framed Roger Rabbit, co-starring Joanna Cassidy and David L. Lander. He also had a memorable turn as Uncle Fester in the 1991 film The Addams Family and its 1993 sequel Addams Family Values. Both of these films co-starred Star Trek: The Next Generation guest actor Carel Struycken as the Addams family's butler Lurch.

Lloyd's first stage performance as a member of the Actors' Equity Association was a production of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream in 1961, co-starring Ellen Geer. He made his Broadway debut in the play Red, White and Maddox, which ran for forty-one performances in 1969.

In 1973, Lloyd played the title role in Peter Handke's play Kaspar, for which he won an Obie Award and a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Performance. His subsequent stage credits include a production of MacBeth, Yale University productions of The Possessed and A Midsummer Night's Dream, and an off-Broadway production of In the Boom Boom Room.

From October 1974 through May 1975, Lloyd performed as Bill Cracker in the play Happy End at the Yale Repertory Theatre. [1] When the play was brought to Broadway in 1977 (with Frank Kopyc working as a performer and understudy), Lloyd was unable to perform on opening night due to a leg injury sustained in a stage fall, and future Star Trek: The Next Generation guest actor Bob Gunton went on in his place. Lloyd soon resumed his role, but had to do so on crutches. [2][3]

Lloyd's later stage credits include productions of Waiting for Godot, Oliver!, and the two-person play The Unexpected Man. His most recent Broadway production was Morning's at Seven in 2002. More recently, Lloyd played Pellinore in the New York Philharmonic's production of the musical play Camelot at Avery Fisher Hall from 7 May to 10 May 2008. The May 8th performance was broadcast nationwide on PBS as part of the Live from Lincoln Center series. [4][5]

After Taxi was canceled in 1983, Lloyd played the Red Lectroid John Bigboote (that's "Bigboo-tay") in the comic science fiction film The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension in 1984, co-starring with Butch and Sundance co-stars Peter Weller (in the title role) and Vincent Schiavelli, as well as Clancy Brown and Robert Ito. Since its release, Buckaroo Banzai has achieved a cult following and has even influenced other science fiction works: numerous in-joke references to this film have been made in Star Trek productions. The following year, Lloyd himself was part of a Star Trek production when Leonard Nimoy cast him as the villainous Kruge in Star Trek III. Nimoy initially wanted Edward James Olmos to play the part, but the role went to Lloyd instead.

Although he has been most inclined to perform in comedic roles, such as those of Buckaroo Banzai, 1985's Clue (co-starring Michael McKean) and 1989's The Dream Team, Lloyd has often proven his versatility with dramatic turns in such projects as the 1995 crime drama Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead (which also featured Bill Cobbs, Don Stark, Tommy "Tiny" Lister, Jr., Bill Bolender, and Bill Erwin) and the 1993 drama Twenty Bucks. He won an Independent Spirit Award for his role as a bank robber in Twenty Bucks, which also starred Matt Frewer and Concetta Tomei.

In the 1999 film My Favorite Martian, Lloyd starred as Uncle Martin the Martian, a role which TNG actor Ray Walston originated in the classic TV sitcom on which it is based. Walston himself also had a supporting role in the film, as did Wallace Shawn and Beau Billingslea. Other notable films in which Lloyd starred include Eight Men Out (1988, with Gordon Clapp, Kevin Tighe, and John Anderson) and Angels in the Outfield (1994, with Neal McDonough). In the latter, Lloyd played Al, the boss angel, a role which he reprised in a 1997 TV sequel called Angels in the Endzone, with Paul Dooley.

Lloyd appeared in a 2010 film adaptation of Jack and the Beanstalk co-starring his My Favorite Martian co-star (and DS9 alum) Wallace Shawn. That same year, Lloyd and Star Trek Nemesis actress Dina Meyer appeared in the horror remake Piranha 3-D, work they received through casting director and producer Alyssa Weisberg. Lloyd reprised his role from this film in the 2012 sequel, Piranha 3DD.

Lloyd won an Emmy Award for his guest appearance on Road to Avonlea in 1992; among those who starred in this series were Star Trek guest stars Claire Rankin and Marc Worden. Lloyd and his Pagemaster co-star (and TNG star) Patrick Stewart appeared in the TV movie In Search of Dr. Seuss in 1994, along with Matt Frewer, Graham Jarvis, and Andrea Martin. In 1995, Lloyd was the lead villain of the short-lived series Deadly Games, of which Leonard Nimoy directed the pilot episode and was a creative consultant. TNG actors Brent Spiner and LeVar Burton appeared with Lloyd in two episodes of the series (Nimoy's son, Adam, also directed an episode).

Lloyd co-starred with Emma Thompson in the acclaimed, Emmy Award-winning 2001 HBO film adaptation of Margaret Edson's play, Wit. He has also lent his voice to such animated shows as The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy and King of the Hill (with Pamela Segall). More recently, he was a regular on the FOX TV sitcom Stacked.

In 2007, Lloyd appeared in an episode of the CBS Paramount Television series Numb3rs with TNG star Wil Wheaton. Their episode revolves around a science fiction/comic book convention, the set of which was adorned with Star Trek posters and memorabilia. [X]wbm In the episode, entitled "Graphic," Lloyd plays the artist of a rare comic owned by (and stolen from) Wil Wheaton's character.

In 2010, Lloyd made a guest appearance on the NBC series Chuck, on which Star Trek: Voyager star Robert Duncan McNeill was a producer and Bonita Friedericy was a regular. In the show, Lloyd played a therapist whom the protagonist, Chuck Bartowski, visits when the pressures of the spy business becomes too much to bear. [6]

Lloyd has co-starred with the late Vincent Schiavelli at least eight times since the two of them first appeared together in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. In addition to the aforementioned Butch and Sundance, Buckaroo Banzai, and Hey Arnold!, they shared the screen in the film Another Man, Another Chance (1977, also starring Michael Berryman) and three episodes of Taxi (1982-83). They later made brief appearances in 1999's Man on the Moon, a film depicting the life of their Taxi co-star Andy Kaufman. Schiavelli died in 2005.